During a recent trip to New Zealand I had a single opportunity to photograph an Eastern Rosella taking flight. This brightly coloured parakeet is native to south-eastern Australia, and was introduced to New Zealand in the early 1900s.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

They compete with native parrots for food and for nests in tree cavities.

Eastern Rosellas have caused localized damage to grain and fruit crops in New Zealand. This includes stripping flowers from fruit trees.

These birds can put native species at risk as Eastern Rosellas have been known to spread avian diseases.

In some areas of New Zealand the Eastern Rosella is considered a pest, and various restrictions/controls are in place.

Before seeing this specific bird I had no idea that Eastern Rosellas were in New Zealand.

You can imagine my surprise when one landed in a tree not too far away from me, as I was walking along the Katikati Bird Walk trail.

I quickly re-set my camera to its C3 Custom Mode (i.e. Pro Capture H settings), and placed a single, small auto-focus point on the Eastern Rosella, hoping to capture the bird taking flight.

In less than a minute the Eastern Rosella did launch into flight and I was able to capture the 15 frame Pro Capture H image run featured in this article.

The Eastern Rosella flew across to the other side of the estuary and I did not see it again during my walk along the Katikati Bird Walk trail. This was my one and only opportunity to capture an Eastern Rosella taking flight.

In an earlier article, the importance of comfort, handling and ergonomics when choosing a camera body, was discussed.

Capturing this Pro Capture H image run is a real-life example that illustrates the importance of handling and ergonomics. Without the outstanding handling provided by my E-M1X I would have missed this image opportunity with the other camera gear I previously used.

As photographers who enjoy birding, we can become fixated on using continuous auto-focus with our cameras… rather than recognize the value of locking in focus and exposure with the first frame of an image run.

There are occasions… like this Eastern Rosella taking flight… when a subject bird may be significantly obscured by branches and foliage.

This can make it difficult to acquire and hold continuous auto-focus on a bird when it takes flight.

By locking in auto-focus with the first frame, and using a fast frame rate, we can still capitalize on fast breaking photographic opportunities, without the use of continuous auto-focus.

At the end of the day it comes down to understanding the capabilities of our camera, and using it to its best effect given the opportunity at hand.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. I used my standard Pro Capture H settings for the photographs in this article, shooting at 60 frames per second and using a single, small auto-focus point. My Pre-shutter Frames and Frame Count Limiter were both set to 15. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,427 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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